Banks do not want to be in the banking business. It is too risky. Banks, through their broker-dealer affiliates, would rather earn fees and commissions from the sale of investment products to consumers, where all the risk is passed along to the customer.

Customers owning Certificates of Deposit, money market accounts, or even interest bearing checking accounts with material balances, will get a call from an individual associated with their "bank," a financial consultant, who wants to show you how you can get higher returns on your money.

Customers se...

Read Full Article

In May, Marilyn Hazell won a $400,000 Finra arbitration claim against Peak Securities Corp., claiming breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, negligence and fraud stemming from the purchase of notes offered by Medical Provider Funding Corp. VI.

Those notes are at the center of a Securities and Exchange Commission fraud complaint issued last summer. The SEC charged Medical Capital Holdings Inc., the parent company of the issuer, with fraud in the sale of $77 million in notes. Dozens of independent broker-dealers sold the notes.

A scan of the Finra database of a...

Read Full Article

The latest cycle of investment fraud cases, unlike the tech-wreck cases of 2000 and 2001, has hit mostly otherwise conservative investors seeking safety and income.

This is the latest fall out resulting from Wall Street’s manufacturing and sale of synthetic investment products, CDOs, structured products, proprietary closed end funds, and multi-billion dollar underwritings of the preferred securities of troubled financial institutions.

However, most investor...

Read Full Article

WASHINGTON — The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has imposed a monetary sanction of $1.5 million against Citigroup Global Markets Inc. for supervisory violations relating to its handling of trust funds belonging to cemeteries in Michigan and Tennessee. The sanction represents a $750,000 fine and disgorgement of $750,000 in commissions, which is being returned to the cemetery trusts as partial restitution.

"Firms have a duty to protect customer funds by taking prompt and meaningful action when they encounter i...

Read Full Article

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has ordered Los Angeles-based Westpark Capital, Inc. to pay a total of $400,000 for supervisory system failures, and has suspended two officers for failing to supervise brokers in two now-closed Long Island branches who churned customer accounts and engaged in unauthorized and unsuitable trading in multiple accounts. The monetary sanction includes a $100,000 fine and $300,000 in restitution to affected customers.

 FINRA suspended Westpark's former Chief Compliance Officer, William A. Morgan, f...

Read Full Article